All you need to know about linking your Aadhaar Card with PAN

The government has made it mandatory to link existing Aadhaar numbers with PAN of taxpayers with effect from July 1. (You can link your Aadhaar card with PAN by visiting the official website of Income Tax Department of India at www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in)

Amending income tax rules and notifying the same, the government has made quoting of the 12-digit biometric Aadhaar or the enrolment ID a must at the time of application of permanent account number (PAN).

Finance minister Arun Jaitley through an amendment to tax proposals in the Finance Bill for 2017-18 had made Aadhaar mandatory for filing income tax returns and provided for linking of PAN with Aadhaar to check tax evasion through use of multiple PAN cards.

The revenue department said “every person who has been allotted PAN as on July 1, 2017, and who in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (2) of section 139AA is required to intimate his Aadhaar number, shall intimate his Aadhaar number to the principal director general of income tax (systems) or DGIT (systems)”.

Besides, it entrusted principal DGIT (systems) or DGIT (systems) with specifying the formats and standards along with procedure for verification of documents filed with PAN application or intimation of Aadhaar number.

The rules will come into force from July 1, 2017, the revenue department said while amending Rule 114 of the I-T Act, which deals in application for allotment of PAN.

There are over 25 crore PAN card holders in the country while Aadhaar has been issued to 111 crore people.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court had upheld the validity of an I-T Act provision making Aadhaar mandatory for allotment of PAN cards and ITR filing, but had put a partial stay on its implementation till a Constitution bench addressed the issue of right to privacy.

Here’s what you need to know about linking Aadhaar number with PAN cards:

What if your income is below the tax limit?
Even then. If you don’t file income tax return but possess both PAN and Aadhaar then linking the two is compulsory otherwise your PAN will be liable to become invalid from a date to be notified by the government, as per section 139AA of the Act.

Do you lose your PAN if you don’t link it Aadhar?
If a person does not link PAN and Aadhaar as mandated by section 139AA then the person’s PAN would become invalid. If a person’s PAN becomes invalid they would face problems in all banking / financial transactions requiring PAN to be quoted.

How does one do it?
The IT department has made provision for assesssees to link their PAN to Aadhaar on the efiling portal. If you have Aadhaar and PAN car ..

How to Link Aadhaar with PAN Card?
You can link your Aadhaar card with PAN by visiting the official website of Income Tax Department of India at www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in.

You can also send an SMS to 56161 or 567678 from your Registered Mobile Number (RMN) of Aadhaar Card in the below mentioned format:
UIDPAN<12 digit Aadhaar><10 digit PAN>

What if You Fail to Link?
The first impact is that you will not be able to file your ITR after July 1 2017, if you fail to link your Aadhaar with PAN. Secondly, if you do not link or fail to link your Aadhaar card with your PAN card, then your PAN card might be rendered invalid by December 2017. Currently 99% adult population in India is enrolled with Aadhaar and the government deems it possible that every adult will be covered by the end of 2017.

What If You Don’t have an Aadhaar Card?
You can apply for the Aadhaar card and provide the application number as a document proving that you’ve applied for one.

Points to note

• Once Aadhaar-PAN is linked, one can e-verify the IT return using Aadhaar if the mobile number is registered with Aadhaar database.

• If the name in Aadhaar does not exactly match with the name on PAN, you need to additionally provide Aadhaar OTP or EVC to proceed with partial name match.